Russia among countries atop NSA surveillance priority list

Russia, alongside the EU, China and Iran, are on top of the NSA’s spying priority list, according to a document leaked by fugitive Edward Snowden and published by Der Spiegel weekly.

In the classified document, dated April 2013, countries are
assigned levels of interest for NSA surveillance from 1 (the
highest) to 5 (the lowest).

Among the top surveillance targets are China, Russia, Iran,
Pakistan, North Korea and Afghanistan. The EU, as a whole is also
ranking high, though individually its 28 member-states are of
lesser importance to the US intelligence, with Germany and France
representing mid-level interest, while countries like Finland,
Croatia and Denmark are denoted as almost irrelevant in data
gathering.

Specification is also provided on what areas of interest are to
be mostly looked at in different countries. Der Spiegel, which
published the leaked document on Saturday, focuses on which
German issues interested US spying agency the most.

The top ranking areas marked with a ‘3’ are the country’s foreign
policy and economic issues. Arms exports, new technology,
advanced conventional weapons and international trade were all
assigned a lesser priority of ‘4’. When it comes to the whole of
the European Union, the spheres of interest are almost identical.

This most recent leak is complementary to the earlier ones,
stating that EU offices in Brussels, Washington and New
York were under NSA surveillance and that Germany was the most spied upon of all EU countries.

Chancellor Merkel has been criticized for the lack of response to
the leaks, suggesting that Germany was not only spied on
extensively, but actually cooperated with the NSA in its
surveillance programs.

Merkel first denied all knowledge of the NSA spying, but soon
afterwards turned to justifying the US, saying “intelligence was
essential for democracies”.

Germans are seemingly not convinced by this type of reasoning, as
Snowden’s revelations have sparked massive rallies across the country.